What this means?

First announced in November, the period between Dec. 23 and Dec. 27 is when Apple is shutting down iTunes Connect to developers.

As Brent Dirks first noted, during the freeze, developers will not be able to submit any new apps and app updates for approval and release through iTunes Connect. Other iTunes Connect and developer account features will still be available.

How significant is the annual shutdown? In the past seven days, nearly 80,000 iOS apps have received updates. Over 22,000 new apps were released over the same period of time.

For non-developers, the shutdown means that no new apps or updates will be released. You also won’t be seeing bug fixes or price changes.

Normal operations will resume on Wednesday, Dec. 28.

This appears to be the shortest iTunes Connect shutdown in recent memory. In both 2014 and 2015, the event lasted for seven days.